Changes

==Additional Information==

==Additional Information==

The judge in this case was required by mandatory sentencing laws to impose a minimum ten years to each defendant.  The sentencing laws did not grant an exemption to police and applied to anyone convicted of using a firearm in commission of a felony.  Mandatory minimums have been championed by the Republican Party for many decades and it is their opinion that ''mandatory sentences for crimes committed with a lethal weapon are the only effective solution to this problem.''  <ref>http://www.ford.utexas.edu/ford_full_search.html</ref>  

The judge in this case was required by mandatory sentencing laws to impose a minimum ten years to each defendant.  The sentencing laws did not grant an exemption to police and applied to anyone convicted of using a firearm in commission of a felony.  Mandatory minimums have been championed by for many decades in opinion that ''mandatory sentences for crimes committed with a lethal weapon is an effective solution to this problem.''  <ref>http://www.ford.utexas.edu/ford_full_search.html</ref>  

18 USC Sec. 92(c)(1) states:  ''Whoever, during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime (including a crime of violence or drug trafficking crime which provides for an enhanced punishment if committed by the use of a deadly or dangerous weapon or device) for which he may be prosecuted in a court of the United States, uses or carries a firearm, shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such crime of violence or drug trafficking crime, be sentenced to imprisonment for five years, and if the firearm is a short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or semiautomatic assault weapon, to imprisonment for ten years'' <ref>http://www.capdefnet.org/fdprc/contents/fed_cap_off/18_usc_924.htm</ref>  

18 USC Sec. 92(c)(1) states:  ''Whoever, during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime (including a crime of violence or drug trafficking crime which provides for an enhanced punishment if committed by the use of a deadly or dangerous weapon or device) for which he may be prosecuted in a court of the United States, uses or carries a firearm, shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such crime of violence or drug trafficking crime, be sentenced to imprisonment for five years, and if the firearm is a short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or semiautomatic assault weapon, to imprisonment for ten years'' <ref>http://www.capdefnet.org/fdprc/contents/fed_cap_off/18_usc_924.htm</ref>

==References==

==References==